Wallis Corrin, Ellerby Zack, Amos Gregory, Holcombe Lucy J
Waltham Petcare Science Institute, Freeby Lane, Melton Mowbray, LE14 4RT, UK.
BMC Vet Res. 2025 Apr 26;21(1):290. doi: 10.1186/s12917-025-04533-1.
Periodontal disease is common in dogs and is initiated by the build-up of plaque on the tooth surface. There is evidence that the feeding of dry diets may help prevent the build-up of plaque and calculus compared to softer wet diets. The primary objective of this study was to determine whether diet format influences the microbial composition of dental plaque.
Subgingival (SG) and gingival margin (GM) plaque samples were collected from 28 Yorkshire terriers, housed within a research facility, between 37 and 53 weeks of age. Dogs were fed either wet commercial diets, dry commercial diets, or a simultaneous offering of the two. Illumina sequencing of the 16 S rRNA gene (variable regions 3 and 4) of 43 SG and 43 GM plaque samples resulted in the generation of 6,725,682 paired end reads. Exploratory factor analysis, a statistical method for dimensionality reduction of multivariate data, was used to identify groups of covarying bacterial species. Subsequent mixed effects modelling revealed significant differences in the scores of two of these groupings indicating systematic differences in prevalences of their component taxa. One grouping revealed that for GM plaque samples, the profile of bacterial species most descriptive of the wet diet was biased towards those associated with periodontal disease whereas for the dry diet it was biased towards those associated with healthy gingiva. The dogs fed a mixture of wet and dry diets had bacterial profiles in between the wet and dry diets, i.e. a mix of both health and disease associated taxa. The other bacterial grouping indicated that, in dogs fed a wet diet only, GM plaque was significantly associated with bacteria that preferred aerobic conditions whereas SG plaque was associated with taxa that favoured anaerobic conditions.
Although dry diets shifted the bacterial community towards a healthier profile compared to wet diets there was no evidence of improved periodontal health. Additional methods to maintain dental hygiene should therefore be promoted to ensure effective management of periodontal disease in dogs.
牙周病在犬类中很常见，由牙面菌斑堆积引发。有证据表明，与较软的湿粮相比，干粮喂养可能有助于防止菌斑和牙结石的形成。本研究的主要目的是确定饮食形式是否会影响牙菌斑的微生物组成。
从28只年龄在37至53周之间、饲养在研究机构中的约克夏梗犬采集龈下（SG）和龈缘（GM）菌斑样本。给犬只喂食商业湿粮、商业干粮，或同时提供两者。对43个SG和43个GM菌斑样本的16S rRNA基因（可变区3和4）进行Illumina测序，产生了6,725,682条双端读数。探索性因子分析是一种用于多元数据降维的统计方法，用于识别共变细菌种类的组。随后的混合效应模型显示，其中两个分组的得分存在显著差异，表明其组成分类群的患病率存在系统差异。一个分组显示，对于GM菌斑样本，最能描述湿粮的细菌种类分布偏向于与牙周病相关的细菌，而对于干粮，其分布偏向于与健康牙龈相关的细菌。喂食湿粮和干粮混合物的犬只的细菌分布介于湿粮和干粮之间，即健康和疾病相关分类群的混合。另一个细菌分组表明，在仅喂食湿粮的犬只中，GM菌斑与偏好需氧条件的细菌显著相关，而SG菌斑与偏好厌氧条件的分类群相关。
尽管与湿粮相比，干粮使细菌群落向更健康的分布转变，但没有证据表明牙周健康得到改善。因此，应推广其他保持口腔卫生的方法，以确保有效管理犬类的牙周病。
